RFA radio transmissions to China, Tibet halted

Radio Free Asia announced this week that its radio broadcasts have been drastically cut as transmissions were halted from relay stations owned or leased by the U.S. government.

RFA informed listeners on Thursday that shortwave radio broadcasts for its Mandarin, Tibetan and Lao language services have stopped entirely. The broadcaster, which is funded by the U.S. Congress, said a heavily reduced schedule remains in place for RFA Burmese, Khmer, Korean and Uyghur language services.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, which oversees RFA, abruptly terminated its federal grant on March 15. RFA has since been forced to furlough most of its staff, and filed a lawsuit last week, seeking to restore the funding on the grounds that the termination violated federal laws.

The Trump administration has moved to slash news organizations funded by the U.S. Congress, including Voice of America and those funded through federal grants like RFA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as part of its drive to reduce government spending.

With its reducing staffing, RFA is still providing limited news updates on its website and social media in all nine languages it serves. The broadcaster was established in 1996, and sends news to countries and regions across Asia that have little or no press freedom, such as North Korea, China, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Monitoring of radio frequencies previously used by RFA indicates that transmissions from shortwave and mediumwave relay stations owned or leased by USAGM have halted in the past week, meaning the hours of radio broadcasts have been slashed from 63 hours in March to just seven hours now.

That is based on review of an online Remote Monitoring System that is maintained by USAGM that provides short audio samples of radio frequencies in regions served by the broadcasters it oversees.

In late 2023, RFA had 126 hours of transmissions per day, before an earlier slew of shortwave cuts.

The few remaining broadcast hours are based on transmissions from relay stations not owned or leased by the U.S. government.

‘Lost a lifeline to the truth’

Audience research and anecdotal reporting by RFA suggests that over the past decade or more, use of shortwave and mediumwave radio has reduced but it remains an important option in regions where internet access is poor or subject to official censorship and scrutiny.

“For millions living in North Korea and China’s Tibetan and Uyghur regions, RFA’s exclusive news and content can only be accessed through shortwave transmissions. Now those populations are being cut off, as are people in Myanmar who are reeling in the wake of a devastating earthquake when radio is a crucial medium,” said Rohit Mahajan, RFA’s chief communications officer.

“They have lost a lifeline to the truth precisely at a moment when it’s needed most,” Mahajan said.

RFA Burmese has received growing requests since the March 28 earthquake in central Myanmar for more radio broadcasts because of disruptions to the internet since the 7.7 magnitude temblor that killed more than 3,000 people.

Kyaw Kyaw Aung, director of RFA Burmese, said that in the aftermath of the earthquake, the service had received requests for more shortwave broadcasts in Rakhine state, a conflict-hit area of western Myanmar which largely escaped the quake but has poor internet access.

“Only a few people with access to the military-run, state-owned MRTV shortwave radio knew about the disaster after it happened, and the reporting was heavily censored,” said Kyaw Kyaw Aung, who has been anchoring a 15-minute RFA daily news broadcast since the earthquake. “Our followers were strongly requesting RFA radio.”